Urology

[jujubeevanillabean]

Hi. First of all i'm new to this site, nice to meet you. =)

I'm a 20-year-old female. I've had a history of UTI's. I got them for a couple of years when I was a toddler and then started getting them again around puberty and each year they increased in frequency, being ten the year before the real pain started. They only lasted a day or two so my ritual had always been just Uristat for pain and lots of water.

Last May the pain set in and hasn't stopped. I feel a STRONG need to use the bathroom that never subsides, burning when I urinate, and sometimes I see blood, "flecks" and "chunks" of something that looks like feather down. After a few months I started getting pain (burning, pins and needles) elsewhere in my vagina but only when the bladder pain was in high gear. A little while after that started my bladder started spasming: Sometimes they're mild little twitches, sometimes I can see the contractions and my pelvic floor rises.

I tried Elavil in ascending doses. It seems to work at first but always stopped working, so I stopped taking it. I tried Sanctura, but didn't notice any difference so I stopped taking it. The only thing that works for the pain is Uristat (an over the counter bladder analgesic), Vicoden is even pretty much ineffective, but the Uristat makes me sick a lot now. I try to only take it when I need to, which is about 5-6 days out of the week. I've gotten better at managing the pain, especially from hiding it from others, but it still is there almost all of the time. I'm not sensitive to foods so IC was almost ruled out, but I still began the IC diet and slowly introduced new foods, but the pain was static. I don't notice much of a pattern with stress other than the fact that being in pain when I can't camp out in the bathroom is more uncomfortable. WIthout Uritstat when I'm in pain I can squeeze some out every five minutes.

Ultrasounds turned up nothing. I had a cystoscopy a few weeks ago. The doctor told me that the bladder wall was inflamed and that the four "spots" came back as just areas of higher inflammation. He told me that I had a high bladder capacity (inconsistent with IC patients) and that aside from the inflammation the appearance of my bladder was inconsistent with the appearance of IC patients' bladders. He recommended physical therapy but didn't offer any ideas regarding the cause.

I feel really let down by this. Its not that i wanted to have a permanent pain problem (with a name, anyway) or for them to find cancer but I really would like to know whats going on. Moreover, if my bladder is inflamed then something is irritating it, right?? Physical therapy will counteract tissue swelling? I may just be a bit paranoid now, but I got a very "half hearted" feeling from the doctor.

I'm hoping to have better insurance by this January to get a second opinion and start physical therapy but for now I'd really like to know if there are any other people out there with my problems, especially if you know whats wrong. I'm at my wits end.

Thank you.